Racialization refers to processes of the
discursive production of racial
identities. It signifies the extension of dehumanizing and
racial meanings to a previously racially unclassified relationship,
social practice, or group.[1] To be
put simply, a group of people is seen as a "race", when it was not
before.

References

^Omi, Michael & Howard Winant
(1986). Racial formation in the United States : from the
1960s to the 1980s. Routledge & Kegan Paul. ISBN
0710209703.